Transfigured Migrations: Mixed Media
Artist Statement
I am an assemblage and installation artist using post-consumer waste. My work process begins with the collection of waste from construction and consumer waste streams, as well as ocean plastic debris. This matter serves as the medium for the production of art, in addition to acting as the muse. The ten pieces in this portfolio all incorporate found objects.
My work addresses the blight of post-consumer plastic waste on the environment. Each image is composed of synthetic materials combined with imagery from nature. The ledger series 1, 4, 5, and 6 seals collage material in a thick coat of polymer medium. The plexiglass series 2, 3, and 10 are constructed on plexiglass and suggest a human torso and a scene from nature. Images 7 and 8 use recovered ocean plastic which is compressed into spheres and suspended on scraps of landscapes. Finally, image 9 reformats a child’s water slide into a giant propeller and modifies construction netting into melted plastic blooms, a bow to rising sea levels, climate change, and the adaption of vegetation to shifting hardiness zones.
I am interested in portraying a changing global landscape as a way to draw attention to our need to reflect on our actions.
Kathryn Frund’s assemblages and installations pose questions about the complex relationships between nature and our consumer-driven society. She explores the themes of stewardship, damage, fluidity, and control. She often incorporates post-consumer waste into her work. The collected waste culled from construction and consumer waste streams, as well as coastal beaches, functions as artist muse and art material. She retools and transfigures materials as various as lead flashing, construction netting, plexiglass commercial signage, chandeliers, and ocean plastic. Her assemblages are material and spiritual explorations addressing the notions of transcendence and restitution.
